Adaptive Cruise Control problems of the 2023 Tesla Model 3 - part 1

While driving my Tesla equipped with autopilot/traffic-aware cruise control, I experienced an unexpected and abrupt braking event. A vehicle had entered the center turn lane and had already cleared my lane, posing no obstruction to my path. Despite this, my Tesla suddenly applied the brakes without warning, causing a rapid deceleration that could have led to a rear-end collision had another vehicle been following closely. There were no visible hazards, warning messages, or alerts prior to the braking. The incident occurred in clear daylight conditions on a dry road, and the vehicle in the center turn lane was stationary or turning away from my lane. This appears to be a case of phantom braking, possibly due to misclassification of the adjacent vehicle or overcautious object detection by the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance systems (adas). This issue has occurred more than once in similar scenarios, and I believe it poses a serious safety risk. I have not yet had the issue inspected by Tesla or a service center, but I am submitting this report to raise awareness and request investigation into the reliability of Tesla’s braking logic in these situations.

The Tesla ran a red light on two separate occasions while in full self driving mode. The first time it went through without me being able to intervene. Given it had done it before, the second time I was able to stop it. Both times occurred at the intersection of [xxx] and [xxx] . It has not done it at other intersections. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Autopilot (adaptive cruise control) will freak out and slam on the brakes when a motorcycle passes by splitting lanes. This is a serious safety issue as cars and motorcycles behind me may not be able to react in time and cause a rear end collision or into the wall or vehicles next to them. It is impossible to override the braking with the accelerator as it will be too late by the time the car accelerates. Flooring the accelerator is also not a safe option.

My Tesla Model 3 disengaged cruise control while going 68 mph and braked hard for no apparent reason. I was driving northbound on I-405 at 3:45 a. M. Going to lax airport in the number 3 or 4 of six or seven lanes. Cruise control had been activated for at least 10 minutes before the incident at a speed of 68 mph. There was no traffic within half a mile before or after me due to the time of day. Neither my left or right foot were near either the brake or acceleration pedal, nor were they in motion. Both hands were on the steering wheel and no control was being activated. The only noticeable environmental condition is that the road surface had just changed from a dark gray asphalt to a bright white new concrete roadway. No emergency braking alert was seen or heard, so I do not think it was a false collision detection, and there was no car within a half mile. However, I do believe the severity of braking could have caused an accident if there had been someone behind me. Tesla Model 3 software version was v12 (2025. 20. 6 046c4575d120).

Description of problem: while driving under normal highway conditions on July 2, 2025, my Tesla suddenly and violently phantom braked — meaning it rapidly and without cause applied the brakes forcefully. There were no obstacles, vehicles, or hazards present. The sudden deceleration caused a severe flare-up of a recent cervical disc replacement surgery I had undergone. I experienced extreme neck and spinal pain and had to seek emergency medical attention. I am now under medical supervision, on pain medication, and unable to work. I contacted Tesla requesting the logs from the incident and have received no response. I’m deeply concerned about the safety of this vehicle and the lack of accountability for this known and previously investigated issue. I am in the process of retaining legal counsel and intend to pursue this further as a product liability and injury case.

Curvature assist feature agressively brakes while driving at highway speeds. This is supposed to slow down for curves, but frequently intervenes for straight, clearly marked lanes. Feature cannot be turned off. Drivers behind me have gotten agitated several times for the sudden, harsh braking, and I do not feel comfortable driving this car.

I was traveling at highway speeds on a highway with no vehicles or other obstacles in front of me. I had adaptive cruise control on. Then, the emergency brakes deployed for no reason (so called “phantom braking”), decelerating the car quickly. I turned off adaptive cruise control as fast as I could and nothing bad happened. But the situation was dangerous, as if a car was close behind me it could have rear ended my vehicle.

The full self driving is very dangerous. I had several events that put me in danger. Like, going to the wrong lane. Going to the wrong way. Changing lanes that almost hit a car good thing I took over right away. It made the other car upset and honk at me.

With the tacc system activated when traveling on a 2-lane road with a right-hand curve, if there is a semi-truck in the opposing lane, the emergency braking engages with a hard brake application. It can be overridden with accelerator pedal, but it endangers the car from collision with a following vehicle. There have been multiple incidents. I attempted to report the condition to Tesla customer support.

When traveling on an interstate highway with a speed limit of 65 mph, with navigation system operating and with tacc engaged, the system sometimes resets the maximum speed to that of the speed limit of the exit ramp (usually 40 mph) when I am not exiting the highway. This results in rapid deceleration significantly below the prevailing highway speed with the potential of causing a rear end collision from following traffic. This is consistent some certain exit ramps along I-93 in nh, and is prevalent when traveling in the right traffic lane.

Vehicle was in cruise control, and cruise control did not deactivate causing the vehicle to propel into a building, causing airbag deployment. Safety sensors of car failed to recognize building, other vehicles, and obstructions as required.

On [xxx], I was driving my Tesla Model 3 from California to my new home in idaho as part of my move there. During the day, I had 6 or 7 situations where the car would suddenly go into full regenerative braking, or outright apply the brakes for no apparent reason. Most of these events took place of freeways at freeways speeds, or on highways (not freeways) at the local speed limit. Every situation was when I had supervised self drive or traffic aware cruise control enabled. These situations were extremely startling and in my opinion potentially dangerous. I don't want to imagine what might have happened if one of these "phantom braking" events had occurred with a heavy 18 wheeler behind me in traffic. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at various speeds with the adaptive cruise control or adas self driving feature activated, the vehicle would independently decelerate without warning. During the failure, there were no other vehicles or objects nearby. The service center was notified of the failure through the Tesla app. The contact was informed that since a time stamp could not be provided for each failure, the technician could not determine the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not yet made aware of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 28,000.

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 72 mph with the cruise control activated, the vehicle abruptly decelerated and nearly came to a complete stop. During the failure there were no other vehicles or objects nearby. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 6,730.

When using cruise control, my 2023 Tesla Model 3 will aggressively brake without warning or apparent cause. The braking is near maximal - as though the vehicle is attempting to prevent an imminent collision. This defect poses a hazard to occupants of vehicles behind mine as well as myself and my passengers as sudden braking could cause a rear-end collision and cascading loss of control. Inclement weather would have exacerbated the problem. This problem is documented. From my brief research it appears phantom braking has been the subject of a NHTSA investigation previously but for prior model years. The issue persists. When I questioned Tesla service regarding this life and limb threatening problem their staff was aware and well versed at requesting the customer report the issue as though it were a minor software glitch. This is a significantly more serious problem necessitating an appropriate response.

When I was driving my Tesla Model 3 with fsd exiting highway 400 (atlanta), the fsd directed me to a wrong routing. I corrected the direction by taking over the fsd, the car then lost its full braking system. I was not aware of it until my car slipped backward at a stop and hit a car behind me. The other driver is good enough to let me go, but my Tesla back bumper was damaged. When I got home and read the message on the screen, I was told that the braking hold was disabled, autopilot was disabled, braking charge was disabled, and wheel alignment was disabled, and more. I contacted Tesla and make an appointment half a month later. I was also told that the Tesla recommends to have alignment adjusted every 6000 miles or every 6 months- while I was not aware of this, I thought Tesla is maintenance free. This was what I told Tesla representative then: if this disfunction is safety related, it should be mandatory, not recommended! I feel I was lucky that I only have a small accident, it could be worse. I just dropped my car to Tesla for repair yesterday, the estimated costs was originally $275, then it went up to ~$1500, then ~$1800, when I was talking to a representative, the costs increased to $2167 in a few minutes! I asked why the prices go up, they said the previous prices are mistakes, and if I dont want to pay, I can drive my car home! I believe this happens to many other Tesla users as well, it needs to be addressed before more accidents and damages. The fragile safety operation and the way Tesla treat its customer are not acceptable, at least to my case. Thanks for your attention, if you need more information about my report, or have any question, please feel free to contact me. Lei zhang 404-273-9726 lei. Zhang72@yahoo. Com.

Tesla motors has two self-driving features, a mode they call enhanced autopilot and full self-driving. Enhanced autopilot is used primarily on freeways, and allows the car to switch lanes without driver's assistance, while maintaining the speed of traffic. Full self driving is a separate system in and of itself that relies on far more sensors, and is far more complex, as it needs to be in order to handle all the nuances of allowing a car to drive itself on and around city streets. During the month of April ,Tesla previewed the supposed improvements in its full self driving mode by releasing it to everyone for free for that month. I was exiting the 101 freeway in los angeles, utilizing the enhanced autopilot feature to navigate myself to my destination. At this exit, the car makes a right on main st, drives downabout 500 feet and then makes another right so that you're briefly traveling underneath the freeway from you'd just exited. As the car made that second right, while on what should have full self-driving mode, the car failed to navigate the angle of that turn and ran right into a steep curb at a fairly fast speed, destroying the right drive train, the right tire, the entire front bumper, and the cars wheel chassis and suspsnesion system all still have to be fixed. I believe the malfunction was caused by the car failing to properly switch vbetween enhancd autopilot and full self-driving if they utilize gps to mmake that determination, because it felt almost as if the car was trying to switch into the lane to the right (which didnt exist there was the curb there) and not like it was attempting to negotiate or preparing to make a wider turn maneuver. I don't believe it even decelerated as it hit the curb. I broke my toe but otherwise am all right. Tesla won't honor their warranty and is threatening to repo the car they won't fix.

The adaptive cruise control of the Tesla Model 3, like other Tesla models, rely on the cameras for determining speed. While driving on the freeway the Tesla Model 3 began to abruptly break almost causing a car to rear-end me. This has occurred multiple times since the full self driving was released to everyone. I discovered that the software reads the freeway's "minimum speed limit" signs as the maximum speed limit. I reached out to Tesla and was told that there would be a firmware up-date but one has not come out since.

Constant lane change while driving has gotten out of control. A couple of instance the vehicle has changed lanes without manual manipulation. This is getting out of hand and has certainly put risks on my family while operating vehicle.

The car phantom brakes constantly (at least every 10 miles) when using cruise control. You will be driving highway speed and the car will slam on the brakes for no reason,, making the cruise control dangerous and unusable.

The autopilot feature of my Tesla Model 3 was safe and effective prior to the update mandated by NHTSA. With the recent update, I now receive multiple warnings during my drive on a daily basis for checking my mirrors or adjusting the radio. These are loud and startling. This update was completely unnecessary and counterproductive to my safety. I'm sure some Tesla drivers drive recklessly, but it makes just as much sense to require ice vehicle manufacturers to install hardware/software to prevent drivers from doing donuts. Please reconsider the "recall" you mandated of Tesla. It was unhelpful. Respectfully, dr. Andy glatfelter palmdale, CA.

1. My 90 year-old mother-in law got trapped inside the car in very bad weather because my phone key wouldn't open the door after I got out and walked her elderly friend to the door of her house about 20 feet away, and then walked back to the Tesla. I've been able to reproduce the problem repeatedly, of course without my mother-in-law in the car. 2. Several near-misses because, unlike most other cars, the Tesla's blind-spot warning system, and many other basic control functions such as adjusting the windshield wipers, opening the glove compartment, etc, require you to take your eyes off the road. For example changing lanes requires you to look away from the lane you're about to move into to check the blind spot display on the touch screen. 3. Several near misses because easing up on the accelerator slows down the car forcefully 98% of the time, but does nothing 2% of the time. Specifically, accidentally flicking down on the right-hand control stick, which turns on the windshield wipers in most cars, activates cruise control and gives minimal feedback to the driver that cruise control has indeed been activated. In this circumstance, easing up on the accelerator pedal doesn't slow down the car at all. This is very frightening and unexpected and could easily cause an accident.

Repeated "phantom braking". With cruise control engaged and zero traffic in front of the vehicle, false readings on the collision detection system will cause strong, sudden, and unpredictable braking. Highly unsafe particularly in conditions where there is traffic behind the vehicle. In my first 900 miles of driving the vehicle there have been 20-25 of such incidents. When triggered, breaking force is strong and deceleration is sudden.

Driving down the highway on a clear day with nothing in front of me, with adaptive cruise control turned on, the car suddenly started braking as if it was in full regen braking. I had to hit the accelerator pedal to override the braking.

I decided to take my first road trip in the new telsa Model 3. The trip was from seattle to portland down i5 which is a pretty straight and easy road. Because of this I decided to use the autopilot feature (I purchased the fsd package) to help take the stress out of driving. (note, this is my first electric vehicle and even my first vehicle with a screen, so I stayed very aware and present the whole time driving with hands on wheel). After a while of driving I noticed the 'arrow' icon on the maps, which indicates my car, wasn't centered on the road and was in fact about quarter to half an inch to the right of the road. I didn't think much of it as I've seen my google maps do this before and after a little bit it readjust and fixes it. As the car was driving, it performed a sudden deceleration and then put on the blinkers to turn left (which I'm on the interstate so there was no left turn). What I noticed was that because the icon on the map wasn't centered on the road, it thought I was off the side of it. When it came up to a side street, it then thought I was on the side street. Thus it rapidly slowed me down to the side street speed limit (35 mph vs the 70 on the interstate), and then thought it needed to turn left to get on to an on-ramp to get me back on the interstate highway. Luckily I was able to catch it in time, but I had to fight with the blinkers for almost a full minute to get them to turn off. After this happened again several more miles down the road, I decided to manually drive the rest of the way. Once I got to a charging station and powered the car off and on, the icon then was centered on the road again. I have noticed a few times since, that it 'gets confused' on what road I'm on and it is concerning that this has a lot of control over the car. It would be great to have a manual way to tell the map that I am currently on which road so it can then note that.

Recent recall update makes auto pilot more dangerous and distracting. I am getting alerts while my hands are on the steering wheel and paying attention to the road, which then causes me to take my eyes off the road to see the alert. Which I then get kicked out of autopilot. Was using autopilot and got an alert the max speed was reduced due to road conditions and when I looked at the alert got another alert to pay attention to the road, then was immediately kicked out of autopilot. This is extremely dangerous especially if road conditions are deteriorating and to have to constantly be looking at all the new and frequent alert. The recent recall has made me constantly have to take my eyes off the road. I can even check my side view mirrors without getting a pay attention alert.

Subject: concerns over NHTSA-forced changes to Tesla Model 3 autopilot I am a Tesla Model 3 owner writing to express concerns about recent autopilot updates, seemingly implemented following NHTSA directives. These updates have significantly altered the system's operation, leading to potential safety risks. Previously, the autopilot required minimal, intuitive steering interaction. However, the new update, presumably in response to NHTSA's safety requirements, demands frequent and forceful steering inputs. This has caused abrupt and frequent accidental autopilot disengagements, a stark contrast to my earlier, safer experiences. It is extremely dangerous when it is not clear to the driver that the system has been disengaged and the nags from the system frequently cause accidental disengagements that don't always get noticed by the driver who is more focused on paying attention to the road than the screen. The heightened sensitivity of the system is not only inconvenient but hazardous. The need for constant, sometimes aggressive adjustments is distracting and can result in unpredictable vehicle behavior. Ironically, a system designed for safety is now a source of danger and stress. In heavy traffic or on highways, the risk of sudden autopilot disengagement has increased, diverting my attention from driving conditions to maintaining system engagement. This is contrary to the autopilot's intended purpose. I urge the NHTSA to reevaluate these changes. It appears the effort to enhance driver engagement has compromised the autopilot's operational safety. Modifications are essential to prevent potential accidents and ensure the system aids in driving safety, rather than detracting from it. Thank you for your attention to this critical issue. Sincerely, scott paulis.

The most current "safety" recall software 2023. 44. 30 which made the autopilot more alert to the driver has made the car less safe. Before the update, autopilot would work as intended and kept the car safe in the lane. Now, even when doing everything correctly, I get nothing but alerts which takes my attention away from the road. The car was safer before the mandatory government update. Honestly not surprised that NHTSA made the car less safe. Let Tesla do what's best for their cars, they had it working great before you got involved. Thanks.

Autopilot now requires so much force to confirm you have your hands on the wheel it’s disengages causing rapid deceleration and steering into the other lane or shoulder. Also requires confirmation at times when the driver should be looking at mirrors when passing etc instead of watching the display.

Vehicle will repeatedly aggressively brake while using “enhanced autopilot”, posing a danger to any cars behind. Complaints given to Tesla have been unresolved.

Adaptive cruise control falsely decelerated on dozens of occasions during a single 500 mile road trip. Sudden braking in the vicinity of other vehicles may cause a crash. Tesla's service technician stated "no hardware related faults were found" and "potential incorrect object detections leading to slowdowns may occur".

Phantom breaking when in adoptive cruise control.

On 2 separate occasions, the cruise control set to 80 and suddenly decelerates. Very scary. Term being used in Tesla chat rooms is 'phantom breaking'.

Will randomly slam on the brakes saying that there is something in front of cars on the highway. This has caused me to almost get into a few accidents suddenly slamming on the breaks at 75 mph. It has happened numerous times and the car feels unsafe to drive. One example it slammed on the brakes in front of an 18 wheeler causing it to almost hit me but I had to slam on the gas very rapidly. There is usually a warning light on about parking break not working when these happen.

Summary: fsd malfunctioned, failed to disengage, causing loss of steering control, thus causing car to steer into wrong lane and resulting in an accident. Tesla service center refused to inspect unless car is fixed. Car was sent to crash champions ( autobody shop) and was quoted $35k to fix. Car was deemed as totaled by Tesla insurance. No response from fsdbeta@Tesla. Com I suspect that the latest fsd software update has caused my car to lose control. Time of incident: 19:28 pm location : wildwood Ave, sunnyvale Ave. Entering from lawrence expressway. Weather condition: clear night, well lit. Low traffic. What happened:? my car has been driving in fsd on lawrence expressway and it was doing everything correctly. Approaching that upcoming tight bend, the fsd slowed down the car, and I took over by steering the steering wheel to the right to deactivate fsd and taking the tight turn, right before the white rows of triangles on the street. At this moment, the steering wheel forcibly turned to the opposite direction (I. E. Left). I tried to correct the steering wheel by turning right even more, but the steering wheel wasn’t responding to my input for a split second. At this moment, my car is now on the wrong lane of wildwood Ave and my car finally responded to my steering input. I had to swerve in the opposite direction to avoid the incoming traffic and ended up brushing against an SUV, followed by an impact on the curb, before finally slowing down. Seeing that there was incoming traffic from the back, I drove down to a residential street to park my car for safety reason. The SUV driver called the police to handle the situation, we had our information and testimonies recorded down. I have already followed the safe practices of driving with fsd according to the manual, but in this situation, I am not certain which technology is responsible for causing my car to override my manual steering input. This led to me to question the driver safety systems in this car.